


Stolen Dance

by Meiloorun



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 16:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9193811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meiloorun/pseuds/Meiloorun
Summary: What should have been a practiced reflex of his machinations at this fated meeting now threatened to fall out of his control. Vader POV on Twilight of the Apprentice





	

There was little time left before the pyramid would implode with the mystical dark powers. But after all the time that has passed, the seconds that remained seemed infinite to Vader. What should have been a practiced reflex of his machinations at this fated meeting now threatened to fall out of his control.

While it should have filled him with rage, he could only hope to draw out this stolen dance a little longer.  

“Yield!” Vader commanded, the close, red light of his saber blinding him through the crack in his dark armor like an angry wound.

“Never!” the Apprentice responded, targeting his exposed flesh with a strike that would have beheaded a lesser fighter.

Like polarized bolts of lightning, their sabers met and clashed against each other in the vacuum of Sith energy. Neither could land a fatal blow in the turbulence that surrounded them, but their intent was unwavering. Death sang with the crackle of every parry, and yet it taunted Vader like waking dream, like the song of some unreal siren in an impenetrable fortress.

Ahsoka twisted away from each thrust of his red saber and lashed forward with her crossed blades, just barely singing his cloak as they passed his body. She was still recklessly impulsive in her movements, but daringly unpredictable and dangerous. With every strike, Ahsoka rose like a bright sun before him, bathed in the purple light of the temple, shining light onto the distant human memories.

Her formidable skills inspired a desire that that Vader hadn’t felt in so many years-- a want that belonged to the dead soul of Anakin Skywalker. Something which threatened every mission set before him by Sideous, the power of the Empire, and Vader’s very existence.   

He wanted her by his side. Not as a prisoner, but as she had once been. Not a student, not an apprentice, but an ally in the cruel matrix of power that contained him. The cruel vestige of truth filled him with shame when he recalled her words:

She would not leave him. _Not again._

Her heart was too visceral, too strong to conceive as a weakness. It was Vader who was truly unmatched, and as he realized that the stakes were against him, he could only force his body to work harder.

Suspense controlled and left him powerless when he finally-- inevitably-- gained the upper hand and knocked her on her back by way of the Force. Her lightsabers were cast away from her to the dark corners of the sept. Seeking to end the plague of this familiar exchange of blows between them, Vader swung his saber towards her unguarded chest.

He cast away the seeds of dissension and took aim. The only thing he wanted to feel was power.

Which he did.

His lightsaber deactivated and fell from his grip before the blade could pass through Ahsoka’s body.

The unwilled gift of mercy filled him up with a treacherous pride. Vader may have envisioned this end for Ahsoka Tano, but Anakin Skywalker would not let that reality come to pass. He could fight against all the light in all the universe, but _he_ would never cause _her_ harm.

Vader howled as pain overflowed within him-- all through his veins and the junctures of his inhuman circuits-- at the damning act of his failure. Ahsoka’s visage filled with shock and relief, as she pulled herself again to her feet, a fearless strength pulsing through her aura. Suddenly, the tremendous eruption of energy from the temple’s zenith knocked them both over the edge and into the rocky depths below.

Vader saw the true illusion in the darkness which followed: her light would always cast over his shadow. And thus the fight would continue on, though they would never join Forces again. 

 


End file.
